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My first Back to Back Cruise


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I just extended my Oasis OTS Cruise in May and am doing my first Back to Back Cruise on Oasis OTS. 

Does anyone know what the latest procedure is for crossing over cruise bookings during covid times? (E.g. do we have to get off the ship, what happens with luggage and additional covid testing requirements). Flying UK to USA. 

If anyone has tips for a first time B2B cruise, let me know 🙂

Thanks in Advance

Matthew Smith

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Currently the ship tests you in their on board lab between cruises.  Usually it's the second last day of the first cruise.   You visit the conference center around 8am or 9am to get tested.  

In the US, Customs and Border Patrol (CBP) usually requires the ship to reach zero count (all guests off the ship) at the end of cruise one before they'll clear the ship for the next cruise to board so that means leaving the ship with other consecutive cruisers, clearing immigration (CBP), waiting for CBP to clear the whole ship and then reboarding just before new cruisers for the next cruise board. 

If you have the same cabin on both cruises all you need is your passport, vax card, etc. between cruises.  You leave everything else in your cabin.  If you are changing cabins you pack your suitcase except for items hanging in the closet.  The cabin attendants move it all to your next cabin while you are off doing the CBP thing.  

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Royal treats it as two cruises in so far as you have an account for cruise one that has to be settled and closed then you get a new seapass card and a new account for cruise two. 

Check in for both cruises online as if they were months apart. 

You have to do the muster safety briefing for both cruises as if you have never done it before.    

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32 minutes ago, twangster said:

Currently the ship tests you in their on board lab between cruises.  Usually it's the second last day of the first cruise.   You visit the conference center around 8am or 9am to get tested.  

In the US, Customs and Border Patrol (CBP) usually requires the ship to reach zero count (all guests off the ship) at the end of cruise one before they'll clear the ship for the next cruise to board so that means leaving the ship with other consecutive cruisers, clearing immigration (CBP), waiting for CBP to clear the whole ship and then reboarding just before new cruisers for the next cruise board. 

If you have the same cabin on both cruises all you need is your passport, vax card, etc. between cruises.  You leave everything else in your cabin.  If you are changing cabins you pack your suitcase except for items hanging in the closet.  The cabin attendants move it all to your next cabin while you are off doing the CBP thing.  

Thanks so much for your response 🙂 

We are in different cabins unfortunately, the cost of the suite room is far too much compared to what i paid a year ago so had to downgrade one week to a balcony room. But good to hear they will move our suitcase to the new cabin.  

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We had an unexpected B2B on March 6 ~ 20, the casino twisted my wife's arm and "I happen to bring my work computer so.... I had the same questions and they delivered a letter to our room that explained the procedure. We meet in the lounge with the other guests and they escorted us off the ship after everyone had left. In the terminal they gave us new sea pass cards and then after a very short wait let us back on the ship before everyone else. Worked great and look forward to it again. We also moved rooms
(they would not give us a Jr Suite again) and we had to pack our bags and the stewards moved everything for us.

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10 hours ago, Matthew Smith said:

Thanks so much for your response 🙂 

We are in different cabins unfortunately, the cost of the suite room is far too much compared to what i paid a year ago so had to downgrade one week to a balcony room. But good to hear they will move our suitcase to the new cabin.  

Moving cabins is obviously not as ideal as staying in the same cabin but it isn't too bad.  I often book the prior or next cruise well after booking the original cruise to make it into a B2B and that often means changing cabins.  I pack my valuables in my backpack (emptying the safe) and bring that with me for the B2B process leaving just my packed suitcase and hanging items for the crew to deal with.

I typically go to my new cabin area on the last night of the first cruise and try to find the cabin attendant for that area to introduce myself.  On some ships the pandemic protocols have cabin attendants moving areas so that doesn't always work right now but only some ships take this approach.

On a recent B2B my future new cabin was empty for the first cruise so I was able to move my own stuff early on turn around day and had it all unpacked before going to the B2B meeting.  As capacity increases that won't happen often.

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Be sure to check on B2B lunch options in the main dining room.  Depending on the ship, they offer  nice early lunch (11:30 or so) to give you something to do while the next batch of travelers is checking in. 

Back to back is easy and you're going to enjoy it!

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Also when you get back on board for the 2nd cruise a day or so later go down to Guest Services and make sure that they have a CC on file.  We got the statement at the end of our 2nd leg and it showed a balance. Well, I thought they had my CC on file caused I did the checkin months ago. So as we where getting off the ship to have our seapass cards; ours BEEP, we couldn't get off cause we hadn't paid our bill. (I was irate!) had to back to GS and give them the card. DH was getting hot under the collar.  FIY DON'T ASSUME ANYTHING!

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